It's Been a Minute

How are you, friends??  Really - it's been a LONG several months of being in survival mode during eLearning {and, honestly, in recovery mode during the past few weeks once the school year ended} - but here we are with another school year stretching out before us.  Another year usually brings a buzz of excitement wondering about the new group of kids, implementing summer PD, and setting up my classroom.  This year is no different - excitement is brewing - but along with that is all of the uncertainty that the current pandemic brings with it.  

Are you starting the year on time?  Are you going to be teaching virtually or face-to-face to start?  I hope you start the year with your own sense of excitement, either way.  Treasure building those connections with your new students.  Find ways to make memories, whether from afar or within a 6-foot radius.  Reach out to parents and share classroom happenings - and make sure to sing the praises of specific students with parents.  Help your community know that learning is still happening and that your kids are loved!

Hey, also don't forget that it's sale time!  Teachers Pay Teachers' BTS sale has always been a time for me to peruse my stored wish-list items and to grab some needed resources while on sale.  And this year is no different.  It's fun to find new resources to share with kids and to make learning fun - AND to free up my valuable time since I don't have to recreate the wheel.  Save 20% on resources in my store, and use the code BTS20 to save an added 5%!

Here's to a good year - no matter what it looks like!  Stay healthy, friends!

Stay Organized with Our BTS Basics

Every year teachers everywhere work to clean, organize, and decorate their classrooms to make an inviting space for students to return to.  We spend hours planning curriculum to engage our students and share our own passion for reading, writing, math, and all that our state standards mandate as need-to-know basics for our own grade level or department.

If you are at all like me, you also vow to keep student and parent info organized and at your fingertips.  In particular, I need help tracking student data, identifying important allergy information, managing expectations for students when there is a sub, and matching student names with parent names and emails.  This last one is critical with so many of our students coming from blended families or having a different last name than the parent.  And then there is the parent email that begins with something like "rockstardad," "fuzzywuzzy," "ophidiophobia," or "hooterchic04" (seriously, I do not need to know that you worked at Hooters when you were younger), or worse!  When I need to send a quick email to a particular parent, sometimes it's hard to identify which student matches with which {inventive} email name.

With our BTS Basics Bundle, we've created a bundle of BTS resources to help you START and STAY organized this year....always my own personal vow, so I imagine others are in the same organizationally-challenged boat.

Included, you'll find more than TWENTY different forms and BTS resources:

•student information

•parent/guardian contact information (2 versions)

•student log-in information

•student reading and math data forms (2 versions for each subject)

•student allergy information

•parent volunteer information

•field trip permission slip check-off form

•generic class check-off form (2 versions-use for everything!)

•book order info (Scholastic – multiple options for paying)

•parent-teacher conference info

•student dismissal form (3 versions – one with blank headings for you to fill in)

•parent donation labels for Meet-the-Teacher or Open House

•good-calls-home log

•absent student work form

•substitute teacher information form

•substitute teacher report back to teacher

•student behavior forms (3 versions—lower/middle/upper elem.)

•glow/grow student letter and form

•glow/grow parent letter and form

•classroom job checklist

•BONUS – perfect attendance poster for your door (2 versions)

•BONUS – Learning from Podcasts form

Not necessary, but fun—grab a pack of Astro-bright paper and print the student info forms on one bright color, print parent info forms on another, and {my favorite tip} print data sheets on your own or each student's favorite color just to make data collection and reporting a bit more fun and enticing.

This resource is offered at half off through the month of August to celebrate the BTS season.  Some of the included resources were freebies at first right here on our blog, or they were included in the newsletter we send our email subscribers, so please consider signing up for this if you like what you see here.

If you have any questions about how I use any of these resources, please reach out and ask via the "questions" tab on TPT or via email.  Be sure to leave feedback so you can earn TPT credits toward any future purchases on TPT, and please tag #itallstartedwithflubber if you post any pictures on social media showing this resource in use—you might win a $10 TPT gift card!

Thanks—and Happy BTS!

Don't Get Stuck (with a Full Wish List)

Happy almost-August, friends!  Have you started getting organized for Back to School 2018?  We've been hard at work creating and updating resources - and getting ready ourselves for a fresh new year! As sad as we are to see our summer break come to an end, there is something about a new year and a fresh start that is truly invigorating.  Do you find starting fresh to be energizing, too? 

While searching for the perfect items to make this year the BEST yet, we take full advantage of the TpT Wish List feature, often adding several resources at a time until we can devote our full attention to narrowing down the search for a particular item...meaning our wishlist is quite "robust." 

Yeah, we'll go with "robust," it sounds very positive and not at all like we've "junked" it up by having hundreds of items on it.

No matter how robust your own wish list is, we want to make sure you DON'T GET STUCK with a full wish list as we head back to school.  Now is the perfect time to make some purchases - it's the annual TpT Back to School SALE!  Use code BTSFRESH to save on the items on your wish list - August 1-2 only!  Save up to 25% during this site-wide sale!

Enjoy the sale and the last weeks of your summer break!

DONUT STRESS, Just Do Your Best

Hey, friends - happy July!  We have a busy week ahead as we head out to a conference in Nashville.  Before we take off, though, we wanted to throw out this little freebie for you.  As we head into BTS season next month, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to get things perfect.  Just remember to take care of yourself and DONUT stress!  We hope the NOTES AND QUOTES freebie we're sending to our subscribers will help a bit!

Not an email subscriber or follower yet, DONUT worry - just click the link to the right to sign up!  You can also click this link to be an It All Started with Flubber follower to receive discounts on all new products.  You will find this DONUT Classroom Decor Notes and Quotes as a freebie in our store as a thank you for following us!  Post pictures on our blog or any social media platform to show us how you used these in your classroom!

Here are some easy classroom set up ideas and self-preservation tips to help:

• keep a list and check off what gets done
• start with a task that has you really excited, or one that gives you the biggest bang for your buck (time) - arranging desks is the one for me!
• tackle a task that's a bit daunting, then flip back to an easy one as you build momentum for completing your checklist
• don't stress if nothing gets checked off once in awhile - you are on summer break, you know!
• let your students do some of the classroom set up and decorating so they have ownership in it
• harness the help of former students if possible, they'll love helping with classroom set up
• take some time for yourself each day - read, watch a funny TV show, or just do what makes you happy
• labels, labels, labels - we print SO MANY classroom things on labels, from workbook or folder labels for each student to a strip of student names in fun fonts for each child, use those labels!
• take pictures as you go so you can see tangible evidence of progress, but remember that sometimes you have to make a mess to clean up a mess - case in point, my art supply cabinet
• try having students get supplies from stations on the first day or two - this way they aren't overwhelmed with a huge stack of things on their desks from the first moment they walk in, and it saves you loads of time
• don't strive for perfect - do your best and let it go

We hope you have MANY more days before you have to think about BTS, but if you are like us and already have begun to think about getting organized, take it small in little bites and it's not nearly such a monstrous task!  

Happy July - now go click that subscribe button so you DONUT miss out on our Notes and Quotes FREEBIE!  (And if DONUTS are really your thing, we are launching a classroom décor product line you might enjoy checking out!)

Summers Off?

Happy June, friends!  We hope you've made it through the 2017-18 school year unscathed and ready to relax.  A few friends, we know, are still in school to make up for days out for weather and efforts to support needed legislative initiatives in many states.  Hang in there, you've got this!!

Most folks outside our community of teachers and families have no idea how much time and energy is involved in a typical day in our classrooms.  Often folks look at our work week and think they'd like to get off at 3:00 every day, and summers OFF??  Yes, please, sign us up!!  The reality is that we work long hours beyond the time our students are in the classroom.  Summers are a time to recharge and refresh, but how many of us have already put in several hours in planning or preparing for the 2018-19 school year?  {Hands are raised, we see you!!}

We've been hard at work creating new resources, too!  Freshly posted in our store is our first classroom decor set - BOLD & BRIGHT - EDITABLE CLASSROOM DECOR!

BOLD & BRIGHT because it makes the atmosphere bright and fun; EDITABLE to give you many options to customize this to fit your needs!!

This is a beast of a file - 270 pages!!  {{Shut the front door - we know, you are saying how in the world could you come up with 270 pages of things we need??}}

Well, jump on this link and see what all is included!  Making your life easier is a prime reason to grab this - jobs, calendars, parts of speech, behavior, labels, desk and locker/cubbie tags, binder covers, and MORE!  It's HALF OFF for a few days!  What a deal - 270 pages of editable classroom decor materials for only NINE DOLLARS through June 22!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/NEW-PRODUCT-HALF-OFF-Bold-and-Bright-Editable-Classroom-Decor-3868350

Classroom arrangements, seating options, and decorations are all over Pinterest and it's so fun to look to see what might be the most engaging ways to use our own classroom learning spaces.  Do you use a theme?  What have you used that's a favorite?  Classroom decor and themes are fun, bright, cheerful, and make us smile when we walk in each morning.   We hope our BOLD & BRIGHT decor set will bring a smile to many teachers' (and students') faces!

Thank you!!

One BIG B2S Giveaway!

Does back-to-school have you running in circles? We know - we are right there with you!  Well, here is a "circle" that you'll want to run!  Follow the link to enter to win some great prizes to help you with any and all school needs!  The "circle" part comes from the loop you run through to have multiple entries in this giveaway - and you get to meet some of our favorite sellers and TpT friends and bloggers!  Enter TODAY!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Glorious Summer

Hey—wait just a minute! The blog title is "Glorious Summer" and the image is of a resource for school—for August??? Is this some type of bait-and-switch scheme?

No way, but we do have a couple of reasons for including this image under the title "Glorious Summer."

1. Most importantly, we want to alert you that this this fun resource is only $1.50 in our store through June 30. It's normally $3.50, so it's a steal-of-a-deal. 

Plus when your teammates and fellow teachers begin to talk about B2S (no, we just cannot bring ourselves to write the words just yet...not quite yet...on a lovely, crisp, cool June morning), you will already have not one, but FIVE fun, engaging, critical-thinking, collaborative, community-building activities ready to go for the beginning of the year!

2. Do you remember summer as a kid? Long days, lots of activity on some days, bike riding, swimming, ball games.  Other days were spent just laying around reading or playing games. Scattergories was definitely one of the fun game we played, along with marathon games of Monopoly, Taboo, lots of card games, and the ever-popular Game of Life. Be honest, who didn't want a fun convertible and twins back then? 

Some Favorite Summer Activities

3. Finally, for many of us, summer is not just a slow-down-and-recharge time but also a time of learning and growing. Our summer learning has been exploring digital resources (watch for our math task cards and probability resources to be available in digital form soon!) We're also learning about Flipgrid as a way to give students a way to share using video. Additionally, we're learning about all that Seesaw offers as a digital portfolio for student work that's easily shared. Watch for more about how we use these coming this fall....after...well, you know...after this Glorious Summer has run its course.

If you already use one of these, PLEASE leave us a comment and let us know how you utilize them! As always, we'd love to hear from you!

It's {Almost} That Time

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE June?  June is the "Friday night" of the summer break - all of that lovely time stretched out before you....a to-do list that is actually manageable....ahhh, June!!

Follow lovely June by busy July, and now the to-do-list begins to fill up a bit with all of the fun projects you want to do by the "End-of-Summer-Break," some for home and some for school.  You may have read a professional book or two (or three or four) and want to implement some of your summer learning in your classroom this year.

And then comes August 1st --- you undoubtedly wonder, "How in the world did it become August ALREADY??" June is a distant memory, and July is fading fast in the rear view mirror, and there are still a few {many} things left undone on that never-ending to-do list.

Ahh, yes - August 1st is the "Sunday night" of summer break.  What's left on your own to-do list? When do you return to class?  What is at the top of your must-do-for-the-new-year list?

For me, I try to get a handle on the first week of school - how to make it memorable for all of us while we get to know each other during those first few days.

Also, I try to update my curriculum slides for Open House, and I love to add in some slides that feature the students.



One way to make it memorable is to use a fun poster in a photo for each student, like these cute chalkboard posters/slides.  How can these be used?

• these can be used in a time capsule if you make one
• they may be out on your student desks for Open House (print the slide you need and have students fill in the missing info using chalk or a white crayon)
• duplicate the slide or slides you need in a new PowerPoint presentation for Open House and personalize them with your students' photos and add in the missing info with a new text box (I like to make a separate PowerPoint with these photos and run it on a loop before and after my curriculum presentation)
• you can even take such a photo of each student in your class with their poster and then pop those into a free app called Video Star and make a music video
• and, of course, use this with your own at-home sweeties!! 

Since you dropped by - or because you follow our blog here - you can access these files FREE through August 5th before we add them to our store.  Now you can make your own memorable keepsake for the first day of school.

Here are some sample slide types and colors.  Choose one color for the entire class presentation, or you can allow students to select one of the four provided for each grade level.

        

Please leave us a comment below to tell us how you used these Chalkboard Posters!  Enjoy - and be sure to check out the sitewide sale on TpT on August 1-2! We'll have everything in our store discounted 20% and TpT offers another 10% off on top of that! Whether you are looking at a dollar vocabulary card set or a big bundle, the savings will be worth the time it takes to drop by for a look!

Celebrating Collaboration with a Back-to-School Giveaway!

We've been pretty quiet this month, but we have been busy!  We were so blessed to meet some incredible teachers and teacher-authors at the TpT Orlando Conference!  We learned from each and every session we attended, and it's our plan to share some of those takeaways with you throughout the coming weeks.

In Orlando, we connected with many of our favorite teacher-authors and made many new friends - including this special group of gals who we are collaborating with on a Back-to-School giveaway! You are going to LOVE this collaborative effort because you might score some fun prizes!

Look below to see how you can win!



1. Follow me on Facebook and/or Instagram. 
2. Like the giveaway post.
3. Tag three teaching friends.
4. Click the link in the profile to enter the giveaway!
5. Good luck!

Link:  Back to School Giveaway Link

One of our most important takeaways was collaboration - whether setting up your classroom to foster a climate for collaboration or working with other teachers to share resources and ideas - collaboration is a key for us!

GOOD LUCK!!